Co-captain Angus O’Brien pinpointed the ‘fight in this group’ as Dragons battled back in grandstand finale at Cardiff Arms Park before just falling sort in an absorbing East Wales derby.
The Men of Gwent looked set for defeat – despite a first half brace from scrum half Che Hope – before a surge and late penalty try set up the game for a thrilling conclusion.
Dragons battled hard in the clash – and five minutes of stoppage time - to a raucous backdrop but could not quite find a way through as they had to settle for a losing bonus point.
But O’Brien believes although ‘gutted’ by the derby loss, it shows the character in the squad as they look ahead to a big 2026.
“The second half we didn’t start how we wanted to, but there is fight in this group,” said O’Brien.
“We showed it against Lyon, and we kept saying ‘there is time’, we just needed to stay patient and get our things right.
“We gave ourselves a chance to win the game late on but, unfortunately, we just came up short.
“We haven’t shown the performances on the road that we have at home yet, which is disappointing.
“But there were lots of good in that game. The momentum we have created over these last few weeks we wanted to carry forward.
“We have another opportunity in six days, but we are devastated we couldn’t quite get it over the line.
“Cardiff are extremely good defensively so we are gutted we couldn’t break them down at the end.”
Dragons now face Scarlets on New Year’s Day back at Rodney Parade and O’Brien is hoping for a big start to the new calendat year.
“We’re all excited by New Year’s Day,” he said. “We’ll review the Cardiff game because we know we had an opportunity to win that game and we are disappointed we didn’t do that.
“We’ve got to recover, go again, and we’ll be champing at the bit to go again and get another big performance back at home.”
Tickets for the HUGE New Year's Day clash with Scarlets are on sale NOW! Click HERE to buy online or call 01633 670690 from Monday at 10am.
We’ve got to recover, go again, and we’ll be champing at the bit to go again and get another big performance back at home...
